For the first time in Gallup’s measurement over the past decade, Democrats have a more positive image of socialism than they do of capitalism. Attitudes toward socialism among Democrats have not changed materially since 2010, with 57% today having a positive view. The major change among Democrats has been a less upbeat attitude toward capitalism, dropping to 47% positive this year — lower than in any of the three previous measures. Republicans remain much more positive about capitalism than about socialism, with little sustained change in their views of either since 2010.

These results are from Gallup interviewing conducted July 30-Aug. 5. Views of socialism among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are particularly important in the current political environment because many observers have claimed the Democratic Party is turning in more of a socialist direction.

Most concerning though is the attitude of younger Americans, whose view of capitalism has diminished quite rapidly these last eight years.

Americans aged 18 to 29 are as positive about socialism (51%) as they are about capitalism (45%). This represents a 12-point decline in young adults’ positive views of capitalism in just the past two years and a marked shift since 2010, when 68% viewed it positively. Meanwhile, young people’s views of socialism have fluctuated somewhat from year to year, but the 51% with a positive view today is the same as in 2010.

Older Americans have been consistently more positive about capitalism than socialism. For those 50 and older, twice as many currently have a positive view of capitalism as of socialism.

And in chart form:

Which would certainly explain the rise in popularity of Democrat Socialist candidates these last few election cycles.

Comments

Lazy ingrates. I see it everywhere now, young people who don’t want to work, want everything that comes from work, but they themselves shouldn’t have to work for it. We are doomed. Get your kids out of public schools!

Capitalism has only given Americans a standard of living previously unknown to mankind, but yes, let’s try that nebulous idea of collectivism. Good God, do you think they even know what collectivism is?

There is a clip of Milton Friedman being interviewed by Phil Donahue decades ago in which Dr. Friedman explains to Phil that greed applies to more than money, and excoriates socialists for their greed for power – Phil is momentarily stunned by the answer.Great moment in TV.

That’s exactly what Marx tapped into to pander with, the basest of human emotions, almost Biblical in proportions: Envy and greed. Green-eyed envy whenever his neighbor has more than him, and greed for lots of free stuff from the government (which really means paid for by others). And conservatives are painted as mean for noticing and objecting.

Tom, here’s where your argument went off the rails; “socialist thinkers.” Bernie Sanders is a socialist. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a socialist. In fact according to DNC chairman Tom Perez she’s the future of the party. She’s certainly the new spokes-model for the Democrats.

Do any of either BS or AOC strike you as thinkers? They’re freaking idiots. They keep declaring that people have a right to just about everything in life. People have a right to healthcare, they have a right to free tuition, they have a right to housing, to everything in life. People have a right to healthcare, they have a right to food, and now even a universal basic income.

So in other words the Democrats still have the same attitude toward other people’s labor that they did as plantation owners in the antebellum south. If people have a right to healthcare they have a right to make healthcare workers provide it (Cuban doctors sent abroad to earn hard currency for the communist regime refer to themselves as “slaves in labcoats” and some who have escaped to the US have won cases in federal court that Cuba does still practice slavery). Leftists think they have a right to all sorts of goods and services that they only can have if other people provide those goods and services. So they must think they have right to make those who special in producing those goods and providing those services to continue doing so.

Just like in the good old days before we abolished slavery. And they don’t realize that the work requirement isn’t going to apply to other people. It’s also going to apply to the airheads who think that socialism means they can live like trust fund babies.

The actual socialist thinkers know this, even though they have dumbed down their cult members to the point where they can’t connect the dots. It’s why the idiots are attracted to socialism by the impossible promises and they won’t realize that socialism always requires the internal security forces, secret police, and the gulag.

If the socialist puppetmasters actually told the truth they’d never be able to make socialism a mass movement. So they need telegenic brainless people like AOC to front for them, then the mask will come off. But we saw what pases for socialist thought among their brainless followers at Occupy Wall Street. As far as they’re concerned it’s all Jazz hands, drum circles, somebody else pays their student loans for the degrees in nonsense they’re $250k debt for, but they can’t let the homeless in to share their food because they’ll steal the valiant socialist protesters’ iPhones, iPads, and those $5k custom Apple laptops that their rich daddies and mommies bought them.

As you can see it’s hard to parody these morons but the Babylon Bee does a pretty good job:

“‘At a vegan cafe, I met a guy from Venezuela, ‘Austin explained. ‘I asked him about how great it must be to live in a country working to end economic inequality, but then he went into a long diatribe about oppression, poverty, and murder.’

…But then the man said something that really concerned her: he asked what the crispy bread slathered with a green substance on her plate was.

‘He didn’t even know what avocado toast was!’ Austin exclaimed. She asked him about whether they had lots of avocados in Venezuela, but he explained it wasn’t just an issue of the availability of avocados but also not being able to get bread and sometimes not having electricity for a toaster.

‘He said they never have avocado toast in Venezuela,’ Austin stated, looking visibly shaken. ‘This made me completely rethink things. Socialism seemed like a great idea—a way to make sure everyone was taken care of even if they ran out of their parents’ money’…”

Of course they do. A bunch of ignorant, really stupid, dangerous racist being handled by possibly the least educated academics in the history of the world and a few billionaires who have their gold and escape homes in New Zealand or Switzerland.

When you have never experienced hunger in your life and you suffer from obesity, it is easy to come out and vociferously support putting the world on a bread and water diet. When you come from a very poor place and you struggle to find sufficient food on which to survive, it is easy to recognize how absurd a bread a water diet for all would be.
>
Democrats today have never experienced socialism or have suffered from the ills that socialism creates and they live in extreme the wealth generated by capitalism so of course they support socialism.

With the majority of Democrats hope always triumphs over reality — intentions are always more important than results — top-down mandates by “leaders” are more desirable than the freedom of the markets.

What’s not to like. Give everything away to everybody! We are a rich country, just figure how to pay for it. Very similar is trying to explain credit cards to a 10 year old. They never see the bill, let alone pay it, it’s just magic, pull out some plastic and get whatever you want. Problem: the bill comes due.

My marginal tax rate is already 50% (total tax rate 35%). I react just a tad negatively to anyone hinting at raising taxes to pay for free stuff. My friends and relatives have started all sorts of businesses–that is what is great about America. Let’s make that easier.

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.

Announcement

LIN_SeventhWindow

Newsletter

Morning Insurrection

Get the latest from Legal Insurrection each morning plus exclusive Cyber Insurrection and Author Quick Hits!